1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for outputting speech of setting information on an information apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
When using functions of various information apparatuses, such as operating copying machines or multifunction machines having a copying function, transmission via facsimile, and setting recording reservations of programs in video recorders or hard disk recorders, users may specify some settings in advance. When specifying settings in advance, generally, after confirming the setting information, the users start the operation of the apparatuses (e.g., copying, transmission via facsimile, and setting recording reservations of programs). The confirmation of setting information can reduce setting errors such as incorrect settings or forgotten settings. The users are able to confirm setting information in a visual manner or by speech. Confirmation via speech output is effective in confirming setting information in difficult-to-see environments or for visually impaired users. One issue with confirming setting information is that when the setting information is large, a significant amount of time is required to complete the confirmation.
One approach to overcome this issue is to output speech of only specific setting information. For example, Japanese Patent No. 3558062 discloses a method in which predetermined setting information is sequentially checked and only an item changed with respect to a reference setting value is output as speech.
However, the method of producing a speech output of only an item whose setting has been changed has the following problem. That is, a user can forget to change the settings of other items that are not output as speech. Further, a speech output of a large number of setting items in a fixed order requires a long time, and makes it difficult to identify setting information to be confirmed.